First ever European club title for Sporting CP Lisbon

Sporting Clube Lisbon have won the first edition of the Champions League. In Bucharest the strong Portuguese team captured the gold after three excellent bronze medals over the last year, but this medal tops it. Against Yewara Newa, the defending champion from Russia the men from Lisbon won by 3-2 as world champion Nikoloz Sherazadishvili won a crucial key contest.

Sporting defeated CJ Valencia and Edelweiss Grozny on their way to the final whilst the Russian team of Yawara Newa defeated St Genevieve by 5-0 in their first contest and home team CSM Bucharest in the semi final by 4-1. In the final it was David Reis who surprisingly gave Sporting the lead. With Odbayar Ganbaatar as second man, the Portuguese were close to the victory as the Mongolian made it 2-0. Anri Egutidze, also for years in this team, couldn’t prevent the score of Denis Kalanin, 2-1. World Champion Sherazadishvili made it 3-1 and dragged the unique victory for the first time to a Portuguese club since the installment of the European Club Championships in 1960. It caused that Jorge Fonseca, the typical leader of this team didn’t even have to win his last battle against heavyweight Anton Krivobokov, as the Russian did win his last contest, but it didn’t make any difference in the final ranking with the Portuguese on top.

Iliadis in action

Ilias Iliadis who was defeated by Jorge Fonseca in the semi final, but his team Edelweiss 95 Grozny took a bronze medal afterall. The triple world champion didn’t fight for bronze but had previously been in action during the day. Nevertheless Edelweiss, the winners of last year’s European Club Championships won their last match against St Genevieve of France by 3-2. The men from Red Star Belgrade won the bronze as well after a victory against CSM Bucharest. The team of Nemanja Majdov defeated last years finallists of the European Club Championships Valencia in the repechage. Valencia lost to Sporting Lisbon in their first contest. Edelweiss defeated Red Star in the first battle.

Flam '91 wins women's gold in Champions League

The women of Flam’91 won the European Club Championships last year in Wuppertal and this time again they won the cup, one division higher, the Champions League. In the final Flam 91 defeated another French team, Pontault Combault by 3-2. It was Penelope Bonna who opened the series for Pontault Combault that won the bronze in the Golden League last year. Bonna still hasn’t lost it.

Mongolian Lkhagvatogoo made the equalizer for Flam 91 against Deberdt 1-1. Agata Ozdoba was strong against Baldorj and gave Pontault Combault again the lead. Both Mongolians were in the team of Flam last year as well. Then Asmaa Niang walked into a powerful uchimata of Marie-Eve Gahie, a take over at high speed and made the 2-2. 18-year old Laura Fuseau claimed the victory in the final contest against Naomie Ajax.

The women of Galatasaray secured a bronze medal, just like last year after their victory against the Italian women of Fiamme Gialle by 4-1. Galatasaray has a strong team, but won the only in 2014. Kelmendi won her contest as well. World Junior Champion Alice Bellandi scored the only point with a strong uchimata for Fiamme. Bosnian sports athlete of the year Larisa Ceric scored the 4-1 for Galatasaray.

The mix of Croatian and Italian women of JC Vinkovci wrapped out well with a bronze medal, just like last year a division lower in Wuppertal. Barbara Matic is one of those Croatian stars in the team who won the contest for bronze against the women of Dinamo Bucharest by 3-2.